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/ 13 February 2009
Christian Lealiifano kicked a last-minute drop to hand the Brumbies a 33-31 win over the Highlanders in a thrilling start to the Super 14 on Friday.
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/ 11 February 2009
Super 14 will be on the cusp of change when its fourth year begins on Friday, inflaming tension over audience share with summer sports.
The Bulls combined strong forward play with outstanding defence to record a 28-17 win over the ACT Brumbies in the penultimate round of the 2008 edition of the Super 14 competition. The defending champions from South Africa, who led 18-10 at the break, outscored the men from Australia three tries to two.
Rassie Erasmus is a name synonymous with rat-cunning unpredictability in rugby. And if the Waratahs are to beat his Stormers side in their Super 14 clash at Newlands on Saturday, they know they will have to crack the mindset of the coach before they can break his players.
The Stormers climbed to fourth in the Super 14 with a 20-10 victory over the ACT Brumbies on Saturday. The South Africans scored all their points in a 15-minute purple patch in the first half before holding on as the Brumbies hit back with two tries in the second period
South Africa’s Coastal Sharks face a moment of truth against the toughest team in rugby’s Super 14 when they put their chances of a home play-off on the line against the Canterbury Crusaders in Christchurch on Friday. The Sharks are feeling the effects of five demanding weeks on the road in Australia and New Zealand.
Australia’s Brumbies will not to be sidetracked by history or the widely acclaimed Stormers injuries in the run-up to Saturday’s make-or-break Super 14 clash at Newlands. The history books will show that the last time the Brumbies lost at Newlands was in 1998, and apart from one draw in 2006, they’ve always defeated the Stormers in the Mother City in a decade of clashes.
Flyhalf Christian Lealiifano scored in the dying seconds to give the ACT Brumbies a 28-21 win over the Johannesburg-based Lions in their Super 14 match in Canberra on Friday. With the scores locked at 21-21, Lealiifano burst through the attempted tackle of centre Jannie Boschoff to touch down under the posts.
Leaders Canterbury Crusaders and the Sharks will be under extra scrutiny this weekend about how they react to last week’s first defeats in rugby’s Super 14 series. The moody Auckland Blues are bracing for a backlash from the chastened Crusaders, whose unbeaten eight-match record was unceremoniously ended by the Waikato Chiefs in Hamilton.
The Sharks lost their discipline and unbeaten Super 14 rugby record as the tenacious ACT Brumbies stormed home for a dramatic 27-21 victory on Saturday. Last year’s beaten finalists looked set to stay unconquered after nine matches with a composed opening half to lead 18-7 at half-time, but the Brumbies steamed home in the second term.
The Queensland Reds torpedoed the Western Force’s play-off hopes with a 29-12 upset victory in an all-Australian Super 14 rugby match on Friday. The Reds bounced back from a troubled season for their third victory of the campaign, scoring three tries against the bumbling try-less Force.
The Sharks believe their efforts to remain unbeaten in the Super 14 became more difficult when their 10th-round opponents, the ACT Brumbies, announced midweek that coach Laurie Fisher would not be re-hired for 2009. Super 14 tradition suggests that teams whose coaches are dismissed in the course of any season respond with an immediate form improvement.
The ACT Brumbies kept their Super 14 semifinal hopes alive with a tense 16-11 away win over an ill-disciplined Auckland Blues at Eden Park on Saturday. Needing a win to stay in touch with the teams above them, the Brumbies withstood some early Auckland pressure before slowly asserting their dominance.
The Canterbury Crusaders will field a largely second-string line-up against bottom team the Lions as they look to extend their six-point lead at the top of rugby’s Super 14 series this weekend. The six-time champions and the team to beat for this year’s southern hemisphere provincial crown are coming off a bye last weekend.
The New South Wales Waratahs put a tumultuous week behind them to claim their first scoring bonus point of the season with a five-try spanking of the Auckland Blues in their Super 14 game on Saturday. The Waratahs gave their most accomplished performance of the season to down the third-placed Blues 37-16 to move into sixth place and press their semifinal claims.
The Waikato Chiefs ruined Stirling Mortlock’s return from injury by romping to a 42-28 win over the ACT Brumbies in a Super 14 match in Canberra on Friday. Australia captain Mortlock was playing his first game of the season following shoulder surgery but was powerless to contain an inspired Waikato side.
The Sharks put their unbeaten record on the line in their opening Australasian tour match of the Super 14 rugby series against the Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday. The Durban-based team, along with table-topping Canterbury Crusaders, are the only two teams yet to taste defeat in the southern hemisphere provincial competition.
Bulls loose forward Pedrie Wannenburg will become the most capped Bulls player in Super rugby when he takes the field against the Western Force in Perth on Friday. Wannenburg, who was selected as flank alongside Wikus van Heerden, will surpass Victor Matfield’s record of 77 matches for the franchise.
Crusaders coach Robbie Deans is expecting the toughest match so far for his unbeaten team in Friday’s New Zealand Super 14 rugby derby against the Hurricanes in Wellington. The six-time champions have looked dynamic in winning their first six games of the southern hemisphere provincial series.
The ACT Brumbies overcame a crippling injury toll to beat the Cheetahs 29-23 in the Super 14 in Canberra on Friday. The Brumbies survived a late fightback from the visitors to chalk up their third win of the season while earning a valuable bonus point to stay in contention for a place in the finals nearing the halfway stage of the competition.
A senior Australian Rugby Union official agreed on Monday with aspects of a written complaint about South African referee Willie Roos’s performance during the ACT Brumbies’ loss to the Wellington Hurricanes on Friday night. Peter Marshall said Roos’s decision to award 39 penalties and free kicks had a negative impact on the game.
New Zealand’s Wellington Hurricanes stretched their winning streak to four games with a 33-15 Super 14 smashing of the ACT Brumbies at Canberra Stadium on Friday. The Hurricanes blew away the weakened Brumbies by five tries to two and condemned the Brumbies to their first home defeat in seven matches.
The Stormers climbed off the bottom of the Super 14 rugby standings with an bonus-point 34-16 win over Australian strugglers Queensland Reds in Brisbane on Saturday. The Cape Town-based team played enterprising rugby to come away with four tries in their third straight win in Brisbane and the sixth win in their past 10 games in Australia.
Lote Tuqiri and Dean Mumm scored tries against the run of play to guide the New South Wales Waratahs to a 24-17 win over the ACT Brumbies in a Super 14 match on Friday. Wallaby wing Tuqiri intercepted a loose pass from Adam Wallace-Harrison to level the score, and then replacement lock Mumm charged down an attempted clearance to score the match winner.
Super 14 frontrunners the Auckland Blues are looking to complete their triumphant South African leg with maximum points against the unbeaten Sharks in Durban on Saturday. New Zealand powerhouses Auckland and the Canterbury Crusaders have shredded South African opposition to state their claims for the southern hemisphere provincial crown.
The Auckland Blues took the outright lead in rugby’s Super 14 when they racked up 50 points for the second straight week against a South African opponent. The Blues followed last week’s 55-10 win over the Lions with a 50-26 win Saturday over the Cheetahs to secure their third straight bonus point and to open a one-point lead over their compatriots, the Canterbury Crusaders.
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/ 23 February 2008
Wallaby Julian Huxley guided a bare-bones ACT Brumbies to a tense 22-20 Super 14 rugby win over New Zealand’s Otago Highlanders in Canberra on Saturday. The Brumbies, in a rebuilding phase after the loss of experienced halves George Gregan and Stephen Larkham, also went into the match without a further three injured Wallabies.
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/ 15 February 2008
The Canterbury Crusaders moved straight into top gear as they started the new Super 14 season with a convincing 34-3 win over the ACT Brumbies on Friday. The four-try effort ensured maximum points for the perennial favourites, who have won the championship six times.
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/ 16 January 2008
The one-and-a-half-day visit of Eddie Jones to the Bulls was worthwhile — and the Super 14 champions have learnt a lot from it. Bulls forward coach Pote Human and the franchise’s new captain, Fourie du Preez, were unanimous in their view that the former Brumbies and Wallaby coach had lots to offer the Bulls.
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/ 30 October 2007
South Africa’s World Cup-winning coach Jake White has shown interest in the vacant Wallabies post via his agent, the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Tuesday. ARU high-performance manager Pat Howard confirmed that agent Craig Livingstone contacted him on White’s behalf last week, but he had heard nothing further.